Saturday, August 1, 2015

Hoodwinked!

What happens when a fine furniture maker decides to make a
puzzle box? The “Woodwink” puzzle box is
a beautiful piece of woodwork designed and crafted by Australian artisan Peter
Cook in his shop, Scarab Wood Studio.
The box is made from Jarrah, Sheoak and desert Snakewood, which are all indigenous
Australian exotic woods, and is composed of 53 precision-made pieces. Despite this the box is completely silent and
gives no clues as to what might be going on inside. It has a lovely burnish and wood smell, and
is as smooth and polished as silk. There
are gorgeous splines along the corners and a pattern created by the colors and
textures of the woods.

The Woodwink Box by Peter Cook

The box resisted
efforts to open it for a while but eventually revealed its secrets. Inside, the bottom is lined with soft leather
and a little silver badge inscribed with the maker’s mark, the box’s edition
number and its year of completion. Peter
has applied his masterful woodworking artistry to the art of the puzzle box and
the results are gorgeous. This is a
unique box created with a tremendous amount of fine craftsmanship, and will
have you “woodwinked” for a while. It
deserves a cocktail with similar qualities, finely crafted out of many parts,
yet smooth and elegant at the finish, and with a hidden secret.

Leather lined interior and a little silver marker add to the elegance of this box

Which brings us to Faith and Flower’s milk punch. This award winning restaurant in Los Angeles
is home to Michael Lay, their “Chief of Booze”, a title anyone could respect. He has delved deep into the history books
(specifically “the professor” Jerry Thomas’ How to Mix Drinks, from 1862) to
remaster the classic “clarified milk punch” for a modern take on the old
classic. Clarified milk punch is a clear
drink, which can look like water or wine, yet is made with milk! Just change the name and it would fool
anyone. Michael Lay’s version is one
complicated cocktail, which incidentally won Esquire’s “cocktail of the year”
last year, so of course I had to make it.
It takes three days to complete, mostly due to the length of time needed
to allow the flavors to meld initially, and then for the milk solids to settle
out at the end. Intrigued? Typically I like a cocktail with a single
bottle of base spirit, such as a nice gin, rum or bourbon. In this case I had no less than seven (!)
bottles of booze lined up ready to contribute to this masterful concoction. It’s not as many parts as in the woodwink box,
but not bad. The fumes alone could make
you drunk.

No less than seven base spirits combine together in this boozy bomb

Keep in mind that this is
meant to be a punch, served for a party.
I cut the proportions dramatically which works just as well. The alcohol steeps in a mixture of fresh
pineapple, lemon peels and green tea overnight.
The real fun begins on the second day, when you add boiling milk to the
rum, cognac and bourbon mixture and watch it curdle … did I just ruin all that
fine booze? All part of the plan, all
part of the plan. After straining the
milk solids away, and letting the smallest particles settle overnight, you are left
with a pale yellow, clear potion. Put it
in a wine glass and you might think you are about to sip a lovely
chardonnay. But this potion packs a
punch, pun intended, and has been described as a “silky smooth booze bomb”,
which really sums it up nicely. The
flavors are incredible, rich, sweet, tropical, balanced and alluring, with an
undertone of velvety milky-ness which lends a truly surprising element to this
crystal clear drink. This “milk punch”
really hoodwinks you, but you forgive it as you reach for another.